A police chief apologized for the historic mistreatment of minorities — and not everyone is happy

Demonstrators
march in Atlanta on Friday, Sept. 23, 2016 in response to the
police shooting deaths of Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Okla. and
Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.C.Associated Press/Branden Camp

Chief Terrence Cunningham, president of the International
Association of Chiefs of Police, made the remarks at the
organization's annual conference, where he acknowledged that
police have long been "the face of oppression" and enforced
"legalized discrimination" across the country.

"While we obviously cannot change the past, it is clear that we
must change the future," Cunningham told the conference audience.
"We must forge a path that allows us to move beyond our history
and identify common solutions to better protect our communities."

Although Cunningham's remarks were praised by many police reform
advocates and police leaders alike, others were either wary
about the vagueness of his apology, or concerned it could
fuel more resentment towards officers.

A common criticism was that Cunningham mentioned only "past
injustices" and didn't appear to address the modern instances of
police brutality that have pervaded news cycles in recent years.
Andre Branch, president of the NAACP's San Diego branch, told the
San Diego Union-Tribune his apology referred neither to a
specific action nor period of time.

"One would want to know before we start jumping up and down and
getting excited about an apology, is he referring to historical
treatment of people of color as last week? Or last month? Or the
last century," he said.

Yet the apology was a major move for someone of Cunningham's
stature, and a "necessary first step" in changing
police-community relations, Jeffrey Robinson of the American
Civil Liberties Union told the Washington
Post.

"The fact that someone high in the law enforcement community has
said this is significant and I applaud it because it is long
overdue," he said.

"Our profession is under attack right now," Kroll said. "We've
got officers dying on almost a daily basis now because of this
environment, and statements like that don't help."

Cunningham's apology only served to appease the "violent
anti-police movement," according to William Johnson, the
executive director of the National Association of Police
Organizations.

"The people who support American police officers aren't looking
for an apology. And for the people who hate the police, it won't
make any difference,"
he told the New York Times.

Cunningham's remarks came just a day after
FBI director James Comey addressed the same conference, and
similarly acknowledged the "history of law enforcement's
interaction with black America."

Comey, however, cautioned against reinforcing the idea that
"biased police are killing black men at epidemic rates" and
argued that "nobody knows" whether a trend in police use of
deadly force exists.

"We face another threat from the narrative that policing is
biased and violent and unfair. It threatens the future of
policing, so we have to talk about it as well," he said.

Instead, Comey touted the need for better data collection on
deadly use of force incidents — an initiative that was formally
announced by the Department of Justice last Thursday — and
urged police leaders to bridge the gap between officers and the
communities that distrust them.

"If people don't trust the police, they aren't going to offer the
tips, they aren't going to whisper to the cop that they saw the
up-close shooting ... Instead, they are going to stay in side on
their own side of the divide, the chasm."